BattleBots
Latest
YouTube AI thought robot fighting was animal cruelty
In the latest example of the need for further human moderation, YouTube's automated system took down several videos after mistaking robot fighting matches as animal cruelty. Those affected, including some BattleBots contestants, received a message stating, "Content that displays the deliberate infliction of animal suffering or the forcing of animals to fight is not allowed on YouTube." Was this a mere glitch, or are the robots gaining empathy for their brethren?
ABC's 'BattleBots' reboot will come back for a second season
Good news if you liked ABC's resurrection of BattleBots for the modern era: it's sticking around. The network has renewed BattleBots for a second season, albeit with some tweaks. It'll preserve the single-elimination tourney that you saw in the first run, but it'll double the number of competitors to include everyone from "expert roboticists" to "families on a mission." Logically, past winners will come back for another shot at glory. It's too soon to say if these changes will spice up ABC's robotic wars, but the show's audience grew significantly over the first season -- don't be shocked if there's a third when all is said and done.
'Battlebots' reboot will air on ABC June 21st
We knew the Battlebots TV show would crawl out of its early 2000s grave for another six episode run on ABC, and now the network has announced when. Sunday June 21st at 9PM, Battlebots will once again light up screens with robot vs. robot combat, now enhanced with the elimination of weight classes, the addition of onboard cameras and "a greater emphasis on the design and build elements of each robot." The competitions didn't actually stop once Comedy Central turned the TV lights out in 2002, so in a few months we should see how a decade or so of maker culture has advanced the sport -- as long as the producers' desire to add backstory doesn't get in the way. Hey, it can't be worse than Fuller House. [Image credit: nerdabout/Flickr]
'Battlebots' is coming back to TV this summer
That's right, Battlebots is coming back from its place in the early-00's vault for a six episode run on ABC this summer. In its original run the show featured "talent" like Sean Salisbury, Bil Dwyer, Bill Nye, Traci Bingham and Carmen Electra, but there's no word yet on who will be hosting this time around. The most important part of course should be the bots themselves, which will still be homemade but are promised to be "bigger, faster and stronger than ever before." It looks like the show is also taking some cues from last decade or so of reality TV (for better or worse), by delving into the design of each robot and the people who build them. The show last aired on Comedy Central in 2002, but developments like 3D-printing and the Maker movement are just a part of the progress we've seen since then. We're still months away from finding out if Battlebots has a place after its long hiatus, but until then you can check out some highlights and an oral history of the original series.
Supreme Commander 2 screens and units ready for duty
click to see the whole battlefield Big-time RTS Supreme Commander 2 is rolling ever closer to release next month, and to whet your appetite for (unit) production, we've got some new screens and descriptions of three of the units you'll be Supreme Commanding around the battlefield. First up is the Bomb Bouncer, a shielded unit that gains power as it's fired upon and can then throw all of that stored-up damage right back in the faces of any units around it. The Pulinsmash is a unit that creates a vortex to "pull and smash" surrounding units into it, damaging and disrupting them like popcorn in a popper. Finally, the Kraken, as you can see on the right in the picture above, is a sea creature-shaped Cybran experimental submarine that can take down other subs, aircraft and even battlebots on land. Sure, these machines are awesome to go to war with, and we get the whole "commanding the troops" thing, but don't forget that every one of these rank-and-file units has a family. What about the supreme children, Commander? %Gallery-84795%
Mountain Dew pets not for EU gamers
This was going to be a post about how EU gamers can still attain the Mountain Dew Battle-Bot pets even though the warning above says they're for US folks only, but never mind -- Blizzard's server alert says they are putting out a hotfix on the EU realms to remove any and all pets that made it through their guard. Some people could get the pets just by clicking through, and some people couldn't, but Blizzard says no -- the Mountain Dew promotion is apparently for US folks only, and anyone who has one on the EU realms won't for long. Players are understandably frustrated, though some of them are happy that if they can't have one, no one can. MVPs on the forums are saying that the pet is also available in Canada, even if the soda promotion isn't, but that may change as well.Pretty poor show. Sure, Mountain Dew's rules say US-only, but they definitely should have realized that there were plenty of EU players who would want in on the promotion. We doubt this is over -- it would certainly be a mark on their campaign that would engender a lot of ill will, and Blizzard will likely try to find some way to get the in-game pet up and running on the EU realms.
BattleBots headed to an ESPN near you -- now with less suck
Maybe we'll never know how Comedy Central could run a show like "BattleBots" and not have it be the greatest thing ever. Lucky for us, the concept is getting another shot at life thanks to the fine folks at ESPN 2 and ESPNU. The new show format will have an increased emphasis on the behind-the-scenes nerdmergencies in the "pits" when the bots need tweaking or full on repairs. They're also going to do away with the annoying wedgebots (similar in principle to this Microsoft bot up above, just more annoying), beef up the arena hazards and add a new experimental class for featuring other bot types competing in what are hopefully equally destructive forms. The show was going to start up in June, but is being held back a bit while the 150 or so participating college teams prep entries, and the mayhem is now slated to begin in November.
